At night, boys and girls from Hamar tribe perform the evangadi (courtship) dance.

The girls instigate it. They slowly advance to the men they want to dance with, and make a flirtatious ‘shima’ (“sexual dance assault”) move with a quick thrust of the pelvis. Then the men advance towards them in a series of jumps. It is a fun event with a lot of flirtation and humour.

Omorate is the most remote, hottest, dustiest and probably the poorest place in the region. However it is a relatively friendly village and one of not too many places where a visitor could see (and even ‘touch’ 🙂 ) the river, that give the name to the region (Omo).

Jumping of the bulls ceremony is a ritual of passage of a boy into manhood.

About 10 bulls (in the past it would be up to 30) are lined up side by side, and a naked boy (a man to be) must cross the line of bulls by jumping from back to back of each of them. If he falls, he will be whipped and teased by women. If he succeeds, he must do it several more times.

Before the bulls, women relatives of the boy ask to be whipped with sticks… More blood and deeper scars show more love and support for their boy. Very disturbing… But also intriguing.

Curious village children were fighting for the right to get closer to us, hold our hands or just touch… A bit scary experience… They seemed to be impressed with hair on my arms… Some kids were trying to pull them out…

We spend just one night there. It was a stopover on the way from Harar to Karat Konso and then to Turmi – a long and difficult trip by public transport across the county. Sodo is a small and relaxed town, that I remember as a place where water in the hotel stopped running completely at the exact moment when I soaped myself in the shower.

While we were waiting at the bus station for our bus to fill up, some people approached me and asked to take their photos…

…On the day two we just wandered around. Some people didn’t mind to be photographed and some even asked me to take their pictures.

It was easy to get lost and to lose a sense of direction in the narrow winding alleyways, but not for long – the city is fairly small.

Walls are bright and colourful, so women’s dresses. Flocks of children shouting ‘farangi, farangi ‘ and ‘give me money’ may appear from any corner, follow us and then suddenly disappear without a trace.

Mosques, shrines, street markets, food stalls create a sense that this place hasn’t changed much in the last several centuries.

Harar (walled city of Jugol, to be precise) is self proclaimed ‘fourth holiest Muslim city’ (After Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem). Although it may not be entirely true, some sources suggest that it may have the largest number of mosques, mausoleums and shrines per capita in the world. Its narrow alleys and traditional lifestyle still carries the original medieval feel.